[Footnote 36: The telegram handed in at Ems on
July 13, 1870, at 3.50 p. m. and received in Berlin
at 6.9, ran as deciphered:

“His Majesty writes to me: “Count
Benedetti spoke to me on the promenade, in order to
demand from me, finally in a very importunate manner,
that I should authorize him to telegraph at once that
I bound myself for all future time never again to
give my consent if the Hohenzollerns should renew
their candidature. I refused at last somewhat
sternly, as it is neither right nor possible to undertake
engagements of this kind a tout jamais.
Naturally I told him that I had as yet received no
news, and as he was earlier informed about Paris and
Madrid than myself, he could clearly see that my government
once more had no hand in the matter.” His
Majesty has since received a letter from the Prince.
His Majesty, having told Count Benedetti that he was
awaiting news from the Prince, has decided, with reference
to the above demand, upon the representation of Count
Eulenburg and myself, not to receive Count Benedetti
again, but only to let him be informed through an
aide-de-camp: That his Majesty had now received
from the Prince confirmation of the news which Benedetti
had already received from Paris, and had nothing further
to say to the ambassador. His Majesty leaves
it to your Excellency whether Benedetti’s fresh
demand and its rejection should not be at once communicated
both to our ambassadors and to the press.”]

[Footnote 37: Play on the word gesprengt.]

* * * *
*

BISMARCK AS AN ORATOR

By EDMUND VON MACH, PH.D.

Bismarck was not an orator in the ordinary sense of
the word, nor did he wish to be one. On the contrary,
he looked with mistrust on silver-tongued orators.
“You know,” he said in the Diet on February
3, 1866, “I am not an orator.... I cannot
appeal to your emotions with a clever play of words
intended to obscure the subject-matter. My speech
is simple and clear.” And a few years later
he said: “Eloquence has spoiled many things
in the world’s parliaments. Too much time
is wasted, because everybody who thinks he knows anything
wishes to speak, even if he has nothing new to say.
More breath is wasted on the air than thought is bestowed
on the questions under discussion. Everything
has been settled in party caucuses, and in the House
the representatives talk for no other purpose than
to show the people how clever they are, or to please
the newspapers, which are expected to be lavish with
their praise in return. If things go on like this,
the time will come when eloquence will be considered
a common nuisance, and a man will be punished if he
has spoken too long.”